Italy revokes the Triple Alliance of 1882 that aligned her with Germany and Austria-Hungary

Italy declares war against Austria-Hungary, but not as yet against Germany

Ottorino Respighi completes his symphonic poem for orchestra Fountains of Rome, first performed in Rome the following year

A brief success in the front line against Austria prompts Italy to declare war on Germany

Ocxtober 24 - a victory at Caporetto enables the Austrian army to penetrate far into northeast Italy

Mussolini founds the Fasci di Combattimento, dedicated to opposing the Socialist party

Mussolini's Fascist party rapidly acquires an aggressive presence, thanks to his gangs of armed thugs in their blackshirt uniforms

The German-speaking inhabitants of South Tirol are incorporated within Italy under the Versailles peace terms

Within a five-week period the Italian playwright Luigi Pirandello writes two masterpieces, Six Characters in Search of an Author immediately followed by Henry IV

Mussolini and 35 of his Fascist colleagues win seats in the Italian parliament

Russian author Maxim Gorky goes abroad for medical treatment and lives for the next seven years in Italy

Ambrogio Ratti is elected pope and takes the name Pius XI

Mussolini gives orders for armed squads to congregate around Rome, in preparation for a march to seize power in the capital

The Italian king Victor Emmanuel III, alarmed at the prospect of a Fascist march on Rome, asks Mussolini to form a government

A triumphant Mussolini arrives in Rome on the overnight train from Milan to take up his appointment as prime minister

Columns of blackshirts, brought into Rome for the day, parade before Mussolini and the king

Benito Mussolini sets up a Fascist Grand Council as a token assembly to conceal his authoritarian rule

With Mussolini already installed as Il Duce, his party wins 65% of the votes in a general election

The Italian novelist Italo Svevo has his first great success when The Confessions of Zeno is published in France

The Italian Socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti is murdered by Mussolini's Fascists

Ottorino Respighi's symphonic poem Pines of Rome has its first performance in Rome

Giacomo Puccini dies without finishing his opera Turandot, which is subsequently completed by Franco Alfani

Benito Mussolini arrests opposition politicians, takes control of the press and assumes dictatorial powers in Italy

Italian poet Eugenio Montale publishes his first collection, Bones of the Cuttlefish

Mussolini's treaty with Ahmed Zogu gives Fascist Italy a dominant position in Albania